Apple Inc. (AAPL), Micron, Drive Einhorn To 4.2% Return In April

David Einhorn likely enjoyed the month of April. The famous value investor’s hedge fund reinsurer, Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (NYSE:GLRE), was up 4.2 percent. The strong returns follow a disappointing start to the year, when GLRE returned negative 0.7% in the first quarter.

Most hedge funds have had tepid starts to the year, including Lee Cooperman’s Omega Advisors, Barry Rosenstein’s JANA Partners, and Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners (according to a shareholder letter reviewed by ValueWalk, Trian was up 1.4% in Q1), which all returned between one and two percent. The poor returns for most hedge funds have continued into April. Hugh Hendry’s hedge fund was down in the month, leading to a negative return of nearly ten percent YTD (see chart below).

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According to GLRE:

As of 30-April-2014, the largest disclosed long positions in our investment portfolio are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), gold, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL), Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) and Oil States International, Inc. (NYSE:OIS); our investment portfolio is approximately 114% long and 66% short. All exposure information is calculated on a delta adjusted basis and excludes credit default swaps, interest rate swaps, sovereign debt, currencies, commodities, and derivatives on any of these instruments.

All of the positions are ‘old names’ and of no surprise, ‘especially’ Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL).

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) was likely a big reason for the solid performance. The tech giant was up nearly 10% for the month of April, and has returned over 5 percent YTD, and is one of the firm’s largest holdings. Micron Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) was another big winner, with a return of nearly 20% for the month. Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:MRVL) was up 3% for the month, and nearly 10% YTD. Gold was mostly flat for April, but is up about 8.5% YTD. OIS was mostly flat for April, but is down about 4.5% YTD.

David Einhorn’s strong returns were likely helped by shorts. He noted in his Q1 letter to investors that ‘there is a clear consensus that we are witnessing our second tech bubble in 15 years. What is uncertain is how much further the bubble can expand, and what might pop it.’ Without stating specific companies, Einhorn noted that ‘Given the enormous stock price volatility, we decided to short a basket of bubble stocks. A basket approach makes sense because it allows each position to be very small, thereby reducing the risk of any particular high-flier becoming too costly.’

While Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) had a strong month, high-flying stocks like Linkedin and Twitter were down nearly 20% in April.

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